Tales of Troy: Ulysses, the sacker of cities eBook

HOW PEOPLE LIVED IN THE TIME OF ULYSSES

When Ulysses was a young man he wished to marry a
princess of his own rank. Now there were at
that time many kings in Greece, and you must be told
how they lived. Each king had his own little
kingdom, with his chief town, walled with huge walls
of enormous stone. Many of these walls are still
standing, though the grass has grown over the ruins
of most of them, and in later years, men believed
that those walls must have been built by giants, the
stones are so enormous. Each king had nobles
under him, rich men, and all had their palaces, each
with its courtyard, and its long hall, where the fire
burned in the midst, and the King and Queen sat beside
it on high thrones, between the four chief carved
pillars that held up the roof. The thrones were
made of cedar wood and ivory, inlaid with gold, and
there were many other chairs and small tables for
guests, and the walls and doors were covered with bronze
plates, and gold and silver, and sheets of blue glass.
Sometimes they were painted with pictures of bull
hunts, and a few of these pictures may still be seen.
At night torches were lit, and placed in the hands
of golden figures of boys, but all the smoke of fire
and torches escaped by a hole in the roof, and made
the ceiling black. On the walls hung swords
and spears and helmets and shields, which needed to
be often cleaned from the stains of the smoke.
The minstrel or poet sat beside the King and Queen,
and, after supper he struck his harp, and sang stories
of old wars. At night the King and Queen slept
in their own place, and the women in their own rooms;
the princesses had their chambers upstairs, and the
young princes had each his room built separate in the
courtyard.

There were bath rooms with polished baths, where guests
were taken when they arrived dirty from a journey.
The guests lay at night on beds in the portico, for
the climate was warm. There were plenty of servants,
who were usually slaves taken in war, but they were
very kindly treated, and were friendly with their
masters. No coined money was used; people paid
for things in cattle, or in weighed pieces of gold.
Rich men had plenty of gold cups, and gold-hilted
swords, and bracelets, and brooches. The kings
were the leaders in war and judges in peace, and did
sacrifices to the Gods, killing cattle and swine and
sheep, on which they afterwards dined.

They dressed in a simple way, in a long smock of linen
or silk, which fell almost to the feet, but was tucked
up into a belt round the waist, and worn longer or
shorter, as they happened to choose. Where it
needed fastening at the throat, golden brooches were
used, beautifully made, with safety pins. This
garment was much like the plaid that the Highlanders
used to wear, with its belt and brooches. Over
it the Greeks wore great cloaks of woollen cloth when
the weather was cold, but these they did not use in